This is the August 2017 newsletter from the RespiTech Group at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research. August has been a busy month for the RespiTech group. In Sydney, Paul Young had the honour of acknowledging Professor Sandra Anderson's Contribution to Respiratory Research at a Distinguished Alumni Event held at the Woolcock Institute. Sandy is an internationally renowned Respiratory Researcher who's research has resulted in a better understanding of respiratory diseases and a number of commercial products that have changed the way we diagnose asthma and treat COPD. Also this month at the Woolcock, the Respitech group participated in the Promoting RespiTech research at the 2017 Woolcock's Science Day 2017 for National Science Week. The group gave a tour to the general public of our molecular biology labs and demonstrated how 3D printing is being used in inhaler design.

Also this month at the Woolcock, Prof Rob Price, an old collegue collaborator and friend from the University of Bath spend time with the group while on Sabbatical in Sydney.

As part of the ongoing construction of the new Centre for Lung Cancer Research and associated Lung Cancer Research Network (LCRN), the Woolcock and Lung Foundation Australia hosted "Cloudy With Increasing Sunshine" The public event for lung cancer patients, friends, family and specialists was a success with a number of speakers covering patient, clinician and scientist perspectives. Paul is coordinator for the LCRN. You can learn more about the event here

Away from the Woolcock, Paul and YY attended the ARCS 2017 conference at the Royal Randwick Racecourse. ARCS provides professional education and advice/networking for the Pharma sector in Australia and the conference brings together the industry from across the Nation. Paul and YY represented the new Master of Medicine (PharmDev) degree, at the University of Sydney, that supplies professional medical education for this sector. You can learn more about the degree here

Also at the University of Sydney, Daniela & colleagues received the Vice Chancellors Award for Outstanding Mentoring and Leadership. The award was for SPAM, a program for mentoring and promoting women in academic institutes to enhance their career tracks.

The group had one publication accepted this month. Alaa Tulbah had a pair accepted in Nanomedicine. The paper was entitled "Inhaled simvastatin Nanoparticles for inflammatory lung disease". You can learn more about all RespiTech publications here

Lastly we welcome new members of the group. This month Ricardo Fontana. Ricardo (Ricky) will be working with the group on a series of new molecules that have potential anti-inflammatory effects in respiratory diseases. On a more social note, the group also celebrated Ricky's 25th Birthday this month!You can follow all our social events here